Tag: Spiritual Travel
Photo You Must See: On the Mosque’s Threshold
by World Hum | 11.12.09 | 11:38 AM ET
REUTERS/Beawiharta Beawiharta A child steps inside a brightly lit mosque in Pelalawan, Indonesia.
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Yahoo! BuzzPhoto You Must See: Obeisance at the Golden Temple
by World Hum | 10.08.09 | 5:14 PM ET
A devotee prays at Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the holiest site in Sikhism
NYC: 30 Mosques in 30 Days
by Eva Holland | 09.18.09 | 11:03 AM ET
First came the Ramadan world tour, and now the Ramadan tour of New York. Two Muslim New Yorkers are just wrapping up a very cool project—visiting 30 mosques in the five boroughs over the 30 days of the holy month. They’ve been blogging as they go, and the result is a fascinatingly complex picture of the city’s modern Muslim community.
Here’s a quick sample from day twenty-seven in Astoria: “I looked around and saw people from all over the world coming in cracking jokes among one another. A litmus test I use to see if a mosque is serving the needs of a community, is checking to see if people are smiling.” (Via Ta-Nehisi Coates)
Slate Takes a Ramadan World Tour
by Eva Holland | 09.16.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Writer Jason Rezaian has spent time in five different Muslim-majority countries—Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Iran and Turkey—during the annual month of fasting, and in a short essay he reflects on the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in the ways each one celebrates their shared holy month.
Photo We Love: Two Faiths, One Prayer
by World Hum | 09.02.09 | 4:27 PM ET
REUTERS/Pichi Chuang The Dalai Lama listens to his interpreter as Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi of Taiwan’s Catholic church says a prayer during a religious dialogue in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
‘Eat, Pray, Love in the USA’
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 11:14 AM ET
Over at Matador Trips, Beebe Bahrami offers her top picks for culinary, spiritual and romantic America, with everywhere from the French Quarter to the Black Hills represented. It’s the latest in an “Eat, Pray, Love” themed series.
Even Mecca Getting Hit by Recession
by Eva Holland | 07.09.09 | 10:59 AM ET
Bookings from pilgrims are “way down” in the Muslim holy city, according to Reuters. Local hoteliers also blame the swine flu panic alongside the global economic crisis.
Interview with David Farley: ‘An Irreverent Curiosity’
by Jim Benning | 07.09.09 | 10:30 AM ET
The World Hum contributor's new book illuminates a bizarre mystery in an Italian village. Jim Benning learns more.
Climbing Ban Could be Coming to Uluru
by Eva Holland | 07.08.09 | 11:55 AM ET
An Australian government proposal is in the works to ban tourists from climbing Uluru, the distinctive red rock monolith that is considered sacred ground by local indigenous groups. Those same groups have been pushing for the move for years, but the proposal is—predictably—controversial in other quarters: “Big Brother is coming to Uluru to slam the gate closed on an Australian tourism icon,” said one conservative politician quoted in the Independent.
Invoking Orwell here seems a tad dramatic. I’m more inclined to agree with local elder Vince Forrester. “You can’t go climb on top of the Vatican, you can’t go climb on top of the Buddhist temples and so on and so forth,” he said. “Obviously you have to respect our religious attachment to the land too, so we’re saying please do not climb Uluru.”
Lantern Floating for Memorial Day
by Pam Mandel | 05.26.09 | 10:30 AM ET
If the pictures are anything to go by, the Memorial Day Lantern Floating ceremony at Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu was the kind of visual feast that makes you think you’re in a dream.
2,000 candlelit lanterns are sent off into the ocean at sunset, each bearing “healing prayers for victims of conflict, famine, disaster and disease as well as our hopes for the happiness of all past and present.”
Yangon, Myanmar
by World Hum | 05.08.09 | 11:33 AM ET
REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun Devotees crowd the Shwedagon Pagoda during the Kason watering festival in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
Jizo, Protector of Travelers and Children
by Pam Mandel | 05.07.09 | 4:24 PM ET
Photo by Pam Mandel On my latest trip to Hawaii, I left my lei draped on the Jizo statue at a little shrine on a bluff between Hanauma Bay and Sandy Beach—to get there, you have to park at the Halona Blowhole viewpoint and walk back along the Kalanianaole Highway. Last time we were there, a ceremony was taking place and we didn’t want to interrupt—a group of 20 or so people stood in front of the statue chanting in Japanese, their prayers blown away on the brisk wind.
Magelang, Indonesia
by World Hum | 05.07.09 | 12:20 PM ET
REUTERS/Dwi Oblo Indonesian Buddhist monks collect holy water ahead of a Vesak Day procession in Magelang, central Java. Vesak Day honors the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha more than 2,000 years ago.
The Altered States of Sedona
by Laurie Gough | 04.14.09 | 10:07 AM ET
iStockPhoto Laurie Gough looks Arizona's New Age mecca in the vortexes and says, "Sacred energy of the Earth, come and get me."
Chongqing Municipality, China
by World Hum | 04.13.09 | 11:38 AM ET
REUTERS/Stringer A worker carries a statue of a saint who has achieved nirvana, also known as an Arhat, for painting at the Arhat Temple in Chongqing Municipality.
Swayambhunath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal
by World Hum | 03.27.09 | 11:11 AM ET
REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom Monkeys sit on a stupa at the Swayambhunath temple in Kathmandu.
Tibetan Monks, In Nine-Part Harmony
by Julia Ross | 03.25.09 | 1:00 PM ET
Here’s a new way to express support for Tibet, if you’re so inclined: Pick up a copy of this CD, produced by the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, of the Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir, chanting in multiple overtones at once (similar to the Tuvan throat singers). National Public Radio has a fascinating story about how the CD was produced, based on a rare 1960s recording of Tibetan monks in northern India made by religion scholar Huston Smith. NPR has a sample of Smith’s original recording online. Apparently the trained ear can discern up to nine harmonies sung by a single monk at one time; to me, the only word for it is “otherworldly.”
Proceeds from the CD support the New York-based Tibet House and the Tibetan Gyuto monastery-in-exile.
What Fatwa? Bali’s Yoga Tourists Follow Their Bliss.
by Julia Ross | 03.11.09 | 10:58 AM ET
Hundreds of yoga tourists in Bali have now joined author Salman Rushdie in an exclusive club: those who have defied a fatwa. This week’s International Bali-India Yoga Festival—which drew participants from the U.S., Germany, Sweden and Japan—proceeded as planned despite a recent edict by Indonesia’s Ulema Council banning the practice of yoga for all Indonesian Muslims.
The New York Times reports that festival organizers initially conceived the event to boost spiritual tourism on the island and decided to go forward with it as a public show of force against the fatwa. Bali’s governor, no doubt aware of the island’s growing yoga tourism potential, has said he will not enforce the ruling.
Who knew sun salutations could be this fraught?
Xining, China
by World Hum | 03.11.09 | 10:35 AM ET
REUTERS/David Gray A Tibetan monk walks to pray in a temple as snow falls in the Kumbun Monastery located on the outskirts of Xining in Qinghai province.
Sidon, Lebanon
by World Hum | 03.10.09 | 11:54 AM ET
REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho Lebanese Sufists play traditional instruments and chant prayers during a ritual marking the birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammed.
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